


Run from the Day

by Anonymous



Series: Strange Days [2]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Fluff and Angst, Gen, M/M, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-20
Updated: 2014-08-20
Packaged: 2018-02-13 23:13:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,070
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2168913
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Isaac feels like maybe he's finally becoming someone he feels good about.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Run from the Day

**Author's Note:**

> I've been wanting to continue this series for what, two years now? Last night I was feeling a little too sad and distracted to work on anything else so I channeled my feelings into this a little bit, but it ends on a high note, don't worry :) Playing kind of fast and loose with canon, the way I see it things diverge after the kamina arc. Hasn't been beta-read.
> 
> You can read this without the first piece in the series, but I think the context it gives it makes it better (and really it's not even four-hundred words so why not).

He's well aware of the way other people look at him. There's a lot of things in their eyes, nothing he cares for much. Pity, a little wariness, some strange displaced sense of resignation like he's already written off as another lost cause, as if it's their place to decide. To even think. So no, he isn't particularly upset that he's alone. There are times he wishes he had someone, anyone, he could confide in and turn to the days he feels like he just can't do it anymore. Like he needs somewhere safe to be. But the people around him on the day-to-day either don't seem particularly suited or they aren't interested, he can't blame them. So, he's alone, and it sucks but maybe it's also better this way. Better than having someone around just to pity him.

There's this one boy though. He's in Isaac's class, tall, not as tall as Isaac but still more than a lot of the other boys, with caramel skin and almost-black hair. He's got the kind of smile that could charm anyone and dimples that make him weak to look at. But that's not what Isaac likes about him. When the other boy looks at him he doesn't feel like any less of a person. He doesn't feel like a thing to be pitied and stared at and forgotten, he feels almost normal. He's not stupid. He does his best to hide the bruises and he does a pretty good job of it, but he still hears the whispers. Everyone does. But Danny looks at him like he knows, but he doesn't treat him any differently because of it. 

Eventually, the looks still follow him but the whispers stop. People forget about him. He gets better and better at being ignored, staying unseen. And, well, out of sight out of mind. 

All except Danny. Now and then he'll catch the other boy's eyes on him. It doesn't happen often, but whenever it does he's always wearing the same undecipherable expression. Isaac always turns away as quick as he possibly can and does his best to quash the tension that coils in his gut and makes his heart rate kick up. Unacceptable. The thought of what his father would do if he knew what Isaac was, it didn't bear thinking of. 

Then there's Derek.

Derek literally shows up out of nowhere and he's offering Isaac power. Power and pack and belonging, and Isaac has spent so many years of his life feeling weak and alone and out of place that no matter how terrified he is, he hardly has to consider the idea before saying yes. 

Derek is a mess, and maybe that should worry Isaac, but for Isaac Derek represents the promise of something important, family. He knows, really, that he's projecting. Camden was the last strong male figure Isaac had in his life, or really strong protective figure in general, and he knows that on some level that's what he's searching for in Derek, what he was always hoping for from his father. But he doesn't feel so bad about it, because really, isn't Derek doing the same thing? He doesn't know the whole story, but he knows Derek lost his family, little and big sisters and brothers, aunts and uncles, parents, his pack. Now, Derek's here trying to cobble together a pack made up of screwed up teenagers with trust issues almost as deep as his so that he can protect Beacon Hills, but Isaac thinks maybe he just doesn't want to be alone anymore. He can understand that part better than he cares to, so he forgives a lot of the older man's shortcomings.

His life changes so quick he's pretty sure he's got emotional whiplash. Everything about him, mind, body, emotion, feels like it's been dialed up. Honestly he's a bit of a mess. He's afraid, he's confident, he's angry, and more than any of that he's strong. He's strong and fast and capable and for the first time in his life he feels like a predator. 

Still though, there's something about his father that manages to make him feel two feet tall. Like a child again. 

When he's finally gone Isaac doesn't know how to feel. A part of him feels relief, he's free. Free to live unafraid and away from his father and the shadows of his mother and brother that haunted their house. The other part feels overwhelming guilt and mourning. Not just for his father, but for the way things could have been if things had been different.

He's so high on power and emotional overload that it doesn't hit him until a while later when he's starting to get a better grip on himself that he is well and truly alone now. He has Derek, and Boyd and Erica, for whom he is eternally grateful. But he's the last of his family. His mother is gone, his brother, and now his father, too. It's strange. He isn't sure how he feels about it, which can be said for most things in his life at this point, but it's strange.

Once he is no longer a suspect in his father's muder, and things have (relatively and, he suspects, temporarily) cleared up on the supernatural side of things Isaac starts to let himself feel. It's not without help, from Derek and Boyd, but especially Erica, and from Scott. From his pack. He's letting himself feel in a way he hasn't in years, and it's difficult, but it's good. 

He's sitting by the lacrosse field during a free period watching other students running laps, and when his eye's catch on a pair of chocolate-brown ones running by he almost surprises himself with the easiness of the grin that spreads over his face. When he notices Danny's lips quirk up in return, he lifts his hand in a small wave, and Danny looks a little surprised, but not displeased. He waves back before rounding the corner of the track and continuing in the other direction. Isaac, for once, does nothing to quell the nervous excitement that spreads through him. He knows it's a longshot, and that on the off chance things even got close to going anywhere there would be hell to pay with Jackson, but he thinks, maybe, he can let himself at least try to have this one, good thing. Maybe he deserves that now.

**Author's Note:**

> Alright, if you wanna come talk about feelings and/or generally nerd out over teen wolf with me come hang out, I'm coucourfeyrac on tumblr! Also, this time I'm actually going to continue this once my piece for the Shameless Big Bang is finished around mid-September.


End file.
